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flower
inner
morph
petals
type
stem
stem
leavessmell
garlic
11th April 2015, old railway embankment, Askrigg, Yorks Dales. | Photo: © RWD |
Young plants before the grass obscures the foot of the plants. The hollow stems are a glaucous green and could be mistaken for a grass. |
27th July 2012, extinct rly, Marshside, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Normally spreads over large areas but each usually well separated from one other. A close knit group found here. Usually medium height 80cm, but can get to 1.2m. |
27th July 2012, extinct rly, Marshside, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
A pinkish papery sheath covers the bulbils at first, with a characteristic shortish spire (not the long spire of Field Garlic). |
2nd July 2012, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
As the bulbils enlarge the papery bracts are forcibly torn apart to reveal the white at first purplish bulbils. Distinguished from the similar plant Round-Headed Leek (Allium sphaerocephalon) in having only one papery sheath (and not two). Also, Round-Headed Leek has a hollow stem, whereas Crow Garlic has a solid or nearly solid stem. |
2nd July 2012, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
This specimen has three globes of bulbils, and unusually a few emergent white at first flowers (top). Papery sheath with short spire beneath. |
2nd July 2012, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The few as-yet un-opened flower buds. (Only very few specimens flower, most only display bulbils). |
2nd July 2012, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Most have only one globe of beetroot coloured bulbils - here a four-globed head from below. |
2nd July 2012, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
A Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva) on the bulbils. |
2nd July 2012, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Another specimen with a few emergent flowers. |
27th July 2012, extinct rly, Marshside, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
A double-globed specimen with sprouting bulbils (right). |
27th July 2012, extinct rly, Marshside, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Bulbils sprouting green filaments. |
27th July 2012, extinct rly, Marshside, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The green sprouting filaments seem to wither away at the ends. |
27th July 2012, extinct rly, Marshside, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
A triple-globed specimen with single flower (bottom right). |
9th Aug 2014, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Seldom flowers. Bulbils initially individually wrapped in a thin papery-brown covering, which eventually drops off to reveal the purple-brown bulbils. |
9th Aug 2014, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The flowers vary from red to pink to greenish-pink with darker longitudinal marks on each petal. |
9th Aug 2014, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers 2 to 4mm long. Petals are pointed, unlike those of Keeled Garlic which are more rounded at the end. |
2nd July 2012, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Stem is round and thin yet extremely robust and stiff. |
4th July 2015, Leasowe Lighthouse, Moreton, Wirral. | Photo: © RWD |
Stem is solid (or nearly so). Here totally solid and very tough! |
Easily confused with : Sand Leek (Allium scorodoprasum) but that has the stamens that do not protrude from the flower, and its leaves are flat whereas they are cylindrical and hollow on Crow Garlic. Also, Crow Garlic can grow larger than the 2 feet of Sand Leek; up to 4 feet tall. Many similarities to Round-Headed Leek (Allium sphaerocephalon) but that has two papery sheaths enclosing the bulbils (rather than the one of Crow Garlic), and the stem of Round-Headed Leek is hollow (whereas that of Crow Garlic is solid or nearly so).
Some similarities to :
No relation to :
This plant is by far the commonest Garlic plant that possesses bulbils, which are purple. It is usually without flowers and of medium height, but can reach 1.2m. The flowers vary in colour from red to pink or greenish-pink and are 2 to 4mm, in an untidy spray at the summit on long thin somewhat droopy flower stalks. Crucially the stamens protrude from the bell opening, un-like those of the similar Sand Leek. The papery bracts form a short spire on top as they do on Although the stems are long, thin and round they are extremely tough and do not yield to breaking with bare hands. The plant smells of garlic if crushed. The bulbils are the means by which it propagates when they fall to the ground. Grows in bare and grassy places, sometimes becoming a nuisance on arable fields.
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